[center][h2]Kochiya Sanae[/h2][h3]Aventon — Forest Outskirts[/h3][/center]
Given Youmu's natural inclination to do what was "right" when not honor-bound by her mistress, it was rather unsurprising to Sanae that the half-ghost gardener was in favor of pursuing whatever it was that had driven the aggressive "earthmane boar" from where it usually called home. The boar itself seemed to display no reason to be so aggressive besides it's prodigious size, however, which didn't exactly bode well with regards to what might be lurking deeper in the forest...

But that mattered little when there was the possibility of the threat simply cascading further out of control if left unchecked. Though the shrine maiden had [i]intended[/i] to return to Aventon once the source of the hunter's worries had been discovered, a part of her was left concerned enough to simply follow after Youmu and Joker in their pursuit. Hopefully, Lewa and Remilia would join them ere long, but who knew how long that would take. She couldn't really say anything about Lewa, of course, but given what she knew of the Scarlet Devil it wouldn't have been surprising in the least if she didn't work on the same sense of time that the rest of them did.

To that end, traveling further into the forest was a straightforward enough matter; with the now-deceased boar's muscling past (and uprooting) trees left and right and Sanae's choice to simply float up past the treetops to direct the group in the general direction away from the town, finding whatever was at the root of the issue wouldn't take anywhere as long as incident resolution traditionally did.

What was harder to notice further away from the ground, though, were more odd marks upon both the trees and the ground beneath their feet. Sanae herself would be unable to notice it, high above the ground as she was, but those closer to the ground (and a keen eye) would find more signs of something [i]subtly[/i] unsettling on top of all that.

[hr]
Coupled with Lewa's efforts to calm the boar's anxious heart, Remilia's magic would make steady progress healing the beast's wound. It wouldn't take long, however, for the reason for the wound's nasty appearance to reveal itself to the pair. Once the swollen, rotting flesh had been cleared away, the injury itself—which seemed more like deep puncture wounds opposite one another than the distinct clamping down of jaws—could be seen. Closing that wound would have simply been the end of things in one sense of the word, but it wouldn't take long before some impurities within the boar's blood would begin to siphon out of the open wound.

To be more specific, a deeply-hued, semi-translucent purple fluid would begin to pour from the open wound before any sort of meaningful healing began in turn. Despite this fact, the boar seemed to remain as it was. Maybe the fact that the two strangers were relieving it of its pain was being acknowledged in a sense, but given how the pair was removing what ailed it, maybe that was to be expected.

[@VitaVitaAR][@EchoWolff][@Izurich][@Lugubrious]
[hr][center][h3]Aventon — Hunter's Lodge[/h3][/center]
While it was mildly odd to Kendrick that Anne seemed to be confused by her ability to read that document, the older man seemed less concerned about the minutiae of [i]how[/i] she knew and more that she did. Any information was good information as they were busy trying to piece together what little they knew, and if the woman who had saved the kids was able to get that from a paper that may as well have been useless, then what reason did he have to complain?

But what seemed to be more noteworthy than even that was how the necklace was beginning to react to Millie. The fact that it had begun to [i]move[/i] towards her body lent credence to Anne's own theories, but something about the situation piqued Kendrick's interest. Sure, the fact that it was reacting to her presence did imply that the enemy was tracking her...

But why, then, would it only react now instead of when they had first opened the box here?

"Mmm... There's too many questions and not enough answers. Why would someone give you things like that in the first place? If they were tracking Millie, wouldn't it have been easier to not let us know they could to begin with?" he asked before the glow upon the necklace intensified for a brief moment.

At the same time, though, Millie—who had up until this point been left in her deathlike sleep—seemed to almost... [i]Stir[/i] in response. The young girl's body shifted around in what looked to be mild discomfort, and a soft groan could barely be heard slipping through her lips...

[@Drifting Pollen]